By Shawn Coates (@shawncoates)
Winnipeg curler Chelsea Carey yells encouragement during play at MTS Centre at the 2013 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings on Tuesday, December 2, 2013. (SHAWN COATES / CHRISD.CA)
WINNIPEG — Day 2 of the 2013 Tim Hortons Roar of the Rings Olympic curling trials at MTS Centre favoured Winnipeg women’s teams over their male counterparts, as both Jennifer Jones and Chelsea Carey won their morning games and Jeff Stoughton and Mike McEwen dropped their afternoon contests.
DRAW 3 — WOMEN’S SIDE
Both Winnipeg teams — Jennifer Jones of the St. Vital Curling Club and Chelsea Carey of the Fort Rouge Curling Club — had dramatic finishes to their matches, having to tie their respective games in the 10th ends and then steal points in extra ends to secure victories.
Jones was down 7-5 to Sherry Middaugh of Coldwater, Ont. when she scored two in the 10th end to tie the match. Then in the 11th, she made a difficult draw past a guard to score another two points to win 9-7. Jones now sports a perfect 2-0 record.
Jones credits the effort of her teammates in making that key shot in extra ends.
“We had to flirt with hitting the guard in order to make it, but the girls just swept their butts off and just got it by,” Jones said. “It (the rock) was really curling. I was 50-50 at the hog line if they were to get it by, but they did.”
Carey, meanwhile, trailed Heather Nedohin of Edmonton, Alta. 5-3 in the final end before tying the contest with a deuce. Then in the 11th with Carey lying three, Nedohin’s draw came up short, giving Carey a steal of three and an 8-5 win. Carey is now 1-1 after two matches.
Carey appeared nervous in her match against Jones Sunday but today stated that wasn’t the case.
“I felt settled yesterday too,” Carey said when asked about her nerves. “The start of this game felt like yesterday’s game, where we were throwing a lot of really good rocks and just not quite having things work out. So it feels nice to have it turn around finally.”
In other women’s games, Rachel Homan is now 1-1 after scoring four in the eighth to crush Renee Sonnenberg 8-2 in eight ends. Val Sweeting moved to 2-0 after beating Stefanie Lawton 8-6.
Manitoba curler Mike McEwen yells instructions to his teammates at MTS Centre on Tuesday. (SHAWN COATES / CHRISD.CA)
Edmonton curler Kevin Martin makes a shot. (SHAWN COATES / CHRISD.CA)
DRAW 4 — MEN’S SIDE
Charleswood’s Stoughton fell to 0-2 after losing 6-5 in a solid battle with Kevin Martin of Edmonton, Alta., who is now 2-0. Stoughton made a risky shot in the ninth that scored three to tie the affair at 5-5. Martin used the hammer to his advantage, making a tough draw to the four-foot to gain the victory.
“I would think that we have to win everything in front of us,” Stoughton said evaluating the road ahead of his team. “It’s not where we wanted to be after two games but we’re taking the positives out of it. We thought we played really well but we just couldn’t get any half-shot misses out of them. We’ve played worse and won, so we’re not going to hang our heads. We’ve got wins before and hopefully we’ll get them tomorrow.”
Martin said that five wins is the benchmark to reach the playoffs.
“Five-and-two is the magic number,” Martin said. “I don’t think a team has made it (to the playoffs) at four-and-three… You take the wins when you can and just keep going and hope to get to five-and-two.”
Fort Rouge’s McEwen lost 7-5 to Sault Ste. Marie’s Brad Jacobs, who is now 2-0. A steal of two by Jacobs in the seventh end gave him an advantage from which McEwen could never recover.
Like Stoughton, McEwen realizes his squad is in a tough spot for the rest of the competition.
“(My focus) is to win every game,” McEwen said. “We need to win both games tomorrow. We’ll try and do that first then take it one day at a time.”
Glenn Howard beat John Epping 9-5 in nine ends and John Morris defeated Kevin Koe 6-4.
Draw 5 goes at 6:30 p.m. tonight with Jones facing Sweeting, Carey taking on Homan, Middaugh going against Nedohin and Lawton versus Sonnenberg.
The men resume play Tuesday morning at 8:30 a.m. at MTS Centre.
